Syria and Sarin Gas: US Claims Have a Very Familiar Ring

Reports of the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons are part of a retold drama riddled with plot-holes

by Robert Fisk

Is there any way of escaping the theatre of chemical weapons? First, Israeli "military
intelligence" says that Bashar al-Assad's forces have used/have probably used/might have
used/could use chemical weapons. Then Chuck Hagel, the US Defence Secretary, pops up in
Israel to promise even more firepower for Israel's over-armed military - avoiding any
mention of Israel's more than 200 nuclear warheads - and then imbibing all the Israeli
"intelligence" on Syria's use/probable use/possible use of chemical weapons. . . .

And since both the regime and its enemies have accused each other of using such weapons,
why isn't Chuck as fearful of the rebels as he is of the Assad dictatorship?

It all comes back to that most infantile cliche of all: that the US and Israel fear
Assad's chemical weapons "falling into the wrong hands". They are frightened, in other
words, that these chemicals might end up in the armoury of the very same rebels,
especially the Islamists, that Washington, London, Paris, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are
supporting. . . .

But now for a few problems. Phosphorus shells can inflict deep burns, and perhaps cause
birth defects. But the Americans do not suggest that the Syrian military might have used
phosphorus (which is indeed a chemical); after all, American troops used the very same
weapon in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where there is indeed now an explosion of birth
defects. . . .